Science | Psychology

Do I Really Need to Worry About Too Much Dopamine?

Dopamine Brain by Joe Duncan

This week, I saw three embarrassing articles about dopamine on NPR’s website.

1. Too much pleasure can lead to addiction. How to break the cycle and find balance.
2. Anti-dopamine parenting’ can curb a kid’s craving for screens or sweets.
3. In ‘Dopamine Nation,’ Overabundance Keeps Us Craving More, which was featured on Terry Gross’ show Fresh Air.

The premise?

Dopamine underpins all addictions.

So, the simple version is, if you don’t vigilantly monitor the things that could stimulate dopamine in your brain, you’ll end up overindulging in an array of everyday things, from sex to smartphones to sweets. That’s the soft version of the message.

The unalloyed version of the message says that these things are not only habit-forming but addictive “like a drug” and that we’re not actually addicted to heroin or alcohol. What we’re really addicted to is the dopamine “hit” we receive from the anticipation of these things.

Readers of my Substack, The Science of Sex, know that this claim sounds familiar. There, I’ve debunked the twin myths of “porn addiction” (here) and “sex addiction” (here) with prominent researchers Dr. Nicole Prause, Ph.D…